paralogue.org

Maybe nobody knows you. Maybe everybody does. Set the scene.

I'm maru. I'm 30, F, Montreal. I've made games, music, books, companies, fediverse instances, I guess forums now, I don't know. I see all of these as artistic projects in their own right. They begin and end for some broader purpose. They blossom into something and then fall away. Then, afterward, they frame life for me, in some sense. I organise my life by what I was making at the time...

I suppose I'm just interested in how interfaces create relationships between us and how they inordinately structure our minds. I always felt like we were doing implicit narration in how we provide content through alert prompts, text boxes ... but then over time I began to think of massive websites and always-on services as systems that themselves ask us to become something inside of them.

Anyway, I wonder sometimes if I can find the structure that creates my best self, brings out the best in everyone. Or if that's a futile effort. Maybe it is.

Lately I keep listening to the map music from Fire Emblem Fates.

I'm da Jenny Dog.

I don't know how I'd define myself, but I guess I've slowly moved into the niche of being a systems programmer, even though I usually feel like I'm talking myself up and don't know anything there haha. I think to become more human I started doing pencil sketching, and an interest in general art, which I find balances me. I also do some technical writing on a blog sometimes. Outside of that, I like reading history and writing stuff. I think I'm the most happy with being a technologist when I can play at being someone's mentor, It's a good feeling.

I think I've made a bunch of choices that could've pushed me to different lives (my formal background is maths and linguistics), and so I keep trying to hold onto any strand of what that me could've been, which is sometimes fulfilling and sometimes sad and sometimes just won't hold down, but I still want to try.

My first social media was a PHP forum very similar to this, and it feels like a good homecoming. Once a friend deleted all of her social media, and we only talked over verbose emails. It was really good and I hope this can be like it.

I'm Lapis! I'm the blue girl who is blue. I write code for a living and sometimes also for fun. I love my friends and my communities and bad software and LEDs and stupid bullshit and the world and the people in it (including myself, though that's a more recent development). In my free time I talk to people online a lot and roller skate and set up and attend social events and try to be a good friend.

I've been living with my best friend for over a year now and it's been really wonderful for us both. I'm going to win a car in a bet this year and I'm feeling very smug about it. For a long time I was most widely known as a nerf arms dealer, but these days it's for being a minor local cryptid with my poi.

I'm also grieving a close friend I lost. It's been about 7 months. I'm mostly handling it okay, these days, but it's not easy. I miss her. I wish you could have met her.

I don't know how much I'll post here, but I wanted to give it a try.

hiii I'm suro :D

I'm 23F, I'm a PhD student in Glasgow. I like writing and I want to explore artistic expression in code and programming languages. I'm not a super experienced artist because I don't feel a creative impulse very often, so I usually consider myself more of an art appreciator. I try to do a lot of research and reading as well.

I'm still sorta learning life, going through the 'academic extended holiday' of not being beholden to a boss and being able to work at my pace, rather than destroying myself with a 9-5.

My work usually involves a lot of functional programming, reading papers on concurrent type systems, and designing these systems on paper. It's all very niche stuff that's difficult to talk about but I would love to try expand on it in an understandable and creative way!

In my spare time I work on my server, set up cute little services that let me get off of corporate clouds, play around with my little computer robot army.

a gamemaker, a songwriter, a speedrunner, a storyteller, a caretaker, a scholar,
a dandere, a detritus collector, a defender of the unloved and unjustly maligned,
a castrata, a broken instrument, a clouded prism, a flower that never bloomed,
a flame-point ragdoll, declawed and abandoned, searching for a place to call home,
a desperate soul who will travel to the ends of the earth if there exists a chance of finding connection on the other side…

<div align="right">Will you heal my spirit?
Will you grant my wish?</div>

Hi I'm in1tiate. I'm a 22 year old (as of 2024) temporarily embarrassed software engineer based out of Texas. I have spent the last few years of my life as a lead client/server developer for the multiplayer visual novel style chatroom Attorney Online, and I've always had a love for creating games in unusual mediums. My first project ever was a text adventure game inspired by Zork when I was 13. My true calling is writing (especially for games), though I've never published anything.

In a past life I was an avid forumgoer, but as forums died out I stopped visiting them. Hoping to last a while here. :)

i like to take pictures when there is a good subject. i like when work ends for the day. i like thinking. i like the piano. im not good at it, but i like playing it. like stimulus. like tracing a shape with your finger. a puzzle you can't solve. i like collecting words, concepts, settings. i like weaving them into my stories. its become somewhat of my purpose in life, i think. i founded a company this year. i like taking the hard path, even if it scares me. i'm scared of the future, but i accept it. i don't think i exist. people scare me. i might be too old to think things like this, but people older than me usually say it's fine. i like thinking of myself as a small animal. i can drive, but i don't. i don't want to be taken care of.

you can maybe learn the rest in the future

hi im emi. living in amsterdam. i like to make music and weird code experiments. i work full-time in a tech startup. recently ive been trying to heal a bit, getting closer to my friends and hobbies. & picking up new ones. i collect cassettes and records, and own weird vintage audio gear. i'm studying stenography (<3 plover). i love playing quake and other such games.

one day i'll write here exclusively using plover, but not today. ^^ i hope to have a good time here and meet all of you.

I'm chc4 o/ 27M, I mostly do computer programming. I'm also into science fiction (my favorite author is William Gibson), magic: the gathering (I exclusively play Commander sorry), dungeons & dragons, and watching people play video games on YouTube and Twitch. I mostly listen to emo indie rock bullshit like Bright Eyes.

I'm not artistic or creative but like learning about new things a lot.

good evening to all, im an aspirant that usually goes by the name 'hepatica' online, though my friends call me ada. at the moment im currently interested in computers and continental philosophy. my more specific interest in computers is communication with them, and how programming languages create a mode of thought. i suppose thats also because im a bit of a writer.

im often scared but the people around me make it better. each and every person on my friends list forms my raison d'etre. i want to meet everyone and experience everything, though thats a slow-going journey. i get closer everyday though.

everything is going to work out!

hi im damien :) im a lil girl guy something. i spend my time working on my car or playing video games. i hope one day i will find true love!

Hiya! I'm Hado or Sam. I like to draw and find cool music and comics in the wild. As you can tell from my name I love astronomy! My dream is to make lots of cool creative stuff inspired by astronomy. Especially constellations!
I am bad at socializing but the last few years I've been trying to change that so I hope we can get along and maybe become friends. -_-

hi. a bunch of you already know me elsewhere as @flower_of_edo/claire/etc but some of you probably dont. im claire. im 32 and i live in arizona. i like being a scamp online and playing games, reading literature and things like that. im not always great at keeping up with all my hobbies but i try. lets all have fun!

When god sent me to beg, he sent me to a place of undeniable spite where all things cease and also continue to be. You cannot even begin to understand the texture of this place, the way it feels in your hands when it is all you have to touch, or the way it tastes when you have to eat.

I’m other news, I’m AJ and I was told to make an introduction. I like social science, politics, and communications as an applied professional bureaucratic hellscape thing.

Hi all, im sinku aka sinkuchan but my name is simone. 24f. i love techno and jazz and post-hardcore and experimental music. i love old computers and software and languages and (computing) history. i love all my friends.

my site on tilde.town @ ~brainfunnel hosts a few blog posts, but they are nothing interesting (yet).

ive written a few programs, released some albums, made some mods for Doom II and contributed to my favorite doom sourceport.

hello, my name is mara. 26/f/slc. i've never been much for writing posts like this. i have a website at https://nekopath.fun

my favorite color is clear. i do the usual span of dilettante activities, music slightly more seriously than the rest. i like making clicky music. i like to read books but i'm inconsistent. i used to spend a lot of time studying mathematics and i'd like to return to that being a central focus of my life, but things seem to be pulling me in other directions. i like to cook and bake things for people. i like to run a lot, but ive had a nagging injury ever since my last marathon so it's been tough.

i dislike defining things. i'm not sure definite knowledge can be held. i'm doubtful of the existence of any real relations between things. i'd like to live between two modes: helping others and chasing flow state. currently shaky at both. i'm not great at socializing but i've been good at it in the past. i value motion highly. i'm in need of a project. i want to increase my skill points and level up.

:)

hi, I'm Jade - I'm a 22yo F, living in the Chicagoland metro area since 2023. Before that I lived in many places in the US. I'm mostly active on fedi (disarray@layer02.net if you want to follow!) but I hope to be active here just as much, forums are nice and it's been too long since I've used one!!

I've been working in IT over the last 4~ish years, mostly in Data Centers. I don't have a degree or any certs though, but I'd like to get some. I was enrolled in college but never fully started due to some personal and work complications at the time... I've been thinking about enrolling again in the next couple of years though - once things are nice and peaceful again. life is still quite busy atm, but im getting there slowly each day!

For my hobbies I like working with servers and computers, fixing and breaking them. so, p much the same as my day job. I also enjoy going on walks and riding my ebike when the weather is nice, just nature in general is so pretty to be in. I also used to game a lot, but I don't do so much anymore. I want to change that and start gaming again as I miss it, plus having my primary hobby be so similar to my day job can be exhausting... zzz

I'm not sure what else to say about myself, I struggle with these kinds of things (likely bc of my anxiety) - but I am happy to meet you all & talk w/ old friends again! ^^;

Hello! I'm Chemicalsheep, you can also call me Chloe if you want. 31, she/her transfem

I am probably going to mostly lurk and chime in occasionally. I'm a former theatre kid who went to a culinary college because I like cooking and then realized working in commercial kitchens is awful and stressful so I stopped working in that industry but I appreciate the skills I gained on their own merit.

I miss forum culture though I rarely use the one forum I still frequent. I used to be in several animation collectives (the clock crew and lock legion) making animations in Macromedia Flash, the least pirated animation software on the planet. I am trying to get better at digital/sprite art and creative writing.

I am a Dutch expatriate that moved to the UK, and hopefully will be moving to the US soon with my fiancée Watermoon.

I think that covers everything that is immediately relevant

Hi! I'm Jasmine.

I'm mostly a computer programmer, and I am *good* at what I do :) I've always got one or two side projects bubbling, but they're a bit under wraps right now :) Nearly most of my free time is on the computer, doing a project or playing a game or tweaking the homelab or dealing with the consequences of gear acquisition syndrome. Just got a server rack. It doesn't fit anywhere. That's life.

I probably haven't been on forums since I was 15 (since I stopped playing Eternal Lands), but I think it might be time to come back :)

Nousnaut Sigourney, skipper of the Nooscaphe.

For years I have sailed on the sea of ideas searching for meaning, truth, justice, and most importantly -- the ultimate piece of headgear (currently Tilley hats reign... but I've not yet given up the search!).

Current quests include: making philosophy lectures for one of my partners, converting to Christianity of the Anglican sort, figuring out how to get computers to do what I tell them, and wrangling, triaging and finally realizing as many of my visions as possible.


phpBBs are the only form of anything like social media that should be allowed on the internet. Smilies are superior in every way to emojis, the high latency forces you think a bit about what you post, and the whole UX is gloriously transparent. Also I'm old enough to have flamed random middle aged men on ezBoard

A "quick reply" field, so n i c e-ah!

Hi hello. I'm userfx, I go under the name "flipperzero" (no relation to the network hacking device) for music and internet radio hosting I do, I'm a 29 y/o married cyberpunk music artist and DJ that hosts a show on anonradio.net called Lit Up On Linux (airs every Thursday 0000UTC, 5pm Wednesdays PDT!).

I'm also a geminaut, capsuleer, and the sysop of a pubnix I run at Hashnix.club which hosts a variety of services, much like other tildes in the tildeverse. I'm just some geek guy that likes to tinker around with software, networking, and music stuff @.@

You can find my music soon at the hashnix.club/~flipperzero sub-domain, but I also got bandcamp at flipperzero.bandcamp.com bleeehhhh (soundcloud being remodelled atm)

Nice to meet you all! I hope to post more soon, and I'll be posting about this beautiful forum. It looks amazing, I love the hacker vaporwavey aesthetic of it. Ciao for now. Long live the smallnet!

-Userfx

hihi, i'm shibao! i do software for a living, but i also have a lot of other hobbies that i do, mainly guns, self-hosting, motorcycling, hiking, photography and then piano, drumming, telescoping, airsoft, backpacking, diy stuff, cooking and baking whenever i have time. i also really enjoy coffee, tea, fountain pens, mechanical devices, any type of gear, and cool engineering as well. thank god i'm not into cars or want to own an airplane, then i'd have absolutely no money. i want to find a way to really enjoy working out, but it's something that i have to make myself do currently.

i run https://bubbletea.dev which is my homelab that some of my friends use as well. i'm based in south carolina, so if you're ever in the area then i'd totally be down to meet up! i'm very goal-oriented, and some of the goals that i want to work on soon are buying a house, getting certified for search and rescue, working on something really cool, and maybe starting my own business. i'm currently looking for my next big thing, let me know if you know anything that's interesting!

it's nice to meet everyone ^_^

hello my name is vivi and amongst friends and my beloved #vivicels i am known for many things. like the fact that i am a professional dj and electronic musician (i have a french touch project and a house one one you should check out!). or for my other likes and hobbies, like being into military stuff, fashion and gaming. or even that i really like romance stories and media (i am a temporarily embarrassed wife rn on the lookout for a gf...)

but by far, the most well known thing about me is probably my confident and assertive personality! i am strong willed and don't take shit from anyone, a type A personality, or a "top" for all you perverts out there. i know this might make me seem a bit intimidating 2 talk 2, because especially online, that type of person is rare. i mean, just look at the person introducing herself before me...no offense, she seems nice, but completely opposite in personality otherwise. pretty shy and timid, and probably a MASSIVE bottom too, i can't IMAGINE being like that tbh i wonder what it must feel like being someone like her

but don't worry! besides when i CLAP BACK @ all the doubters and haters i usually am a pretty big chiller and hard 2 upset. so feel free to hmu if you are intrigued or just wanna chat music, gunz or any other interest we might share!

hello! i'm cicada, but online usually go by the name "swissy". 19. i mainly draw, make images, photograph bugs, and recently i've thrown myself into making music. i'm v new to it - i like to pick off of old flash game osts and pop acapellas, and use VG sound effects more than preset instruments (too overwhelming). can't say i'm any good at it, but it's fun right now. i like to draw cute rabbit girls (doll-like kind) and cute objects. people would describe my drawings as swirly and i like that description.

i love all insects from the auchenorrhyncha suborder, given my name cicada...my favorite family is actually treehoppers though, the shapes they come in are really extravagant...and i like their stare. i am also a fan of ichneumonidae and caterpillars, and can't think of any bug i dislike. striving to be the no.1 mosquito blood supply.

i found this forum through a discord. i'm poor at communicating wherever i go, but i remember forums once being easier for me, kinder to navigate too. in the process of shedding shyness, nice to meet you all

Hello.

I am Brigantia. Judging by the other posts on this "introduce yourself", it would seem I've missed the party so to speak. Maybe my joining will reawaken a few old posters as this seems an interesting place.

I am actually somebody known to several people on here but not through this name. I do not wish for my reputation to follow me however so I see this as a bit of a fresh start if people don't mind.

I am over 30, and I have a wide variety of interests. I want to connect more with nature. I suppose more will be revealed as I interact in future posts.

Hi yall. My name's Ena. I first found this place about 1-2 years ago, from ocasionally visiting maru’s blogs. I like everything by her I’ve read, she has a type of thoughtfulness I envy. I don’t know what's compelling me to randomly join this place. Maybe it’s cause I have a passing interest in old forums. Maybe it’s cause I can’t stand feeling too complacent. Maybe it’s cause I have only one friend who feels like they provide real artistic feedback rather than glazing or insincere politeness or that sickening blankness.

I have a website, but it’s a shell my soul’s outgrown, hasn't been updated in ages, so I’ve been trying to make a completely new, more netart-influenced one. There’s some teasers of it on my Neocities, but those are already too old now (made most obvious by how im no longer a minor. still tryna get myself outta thinking im one.) and I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever know myself enough to approximate something that feels like home. Also, I know some of yall've at least briefly interacted with my fedi presence, where I’ve been posting art and writing and shitty unfinished music and mentally ill teenager stream of consciousness for 4.5 years now. What a weird thing to say.

I think, if you asked my what my artistic focus is right now, I would say I’m most interested in the interplay between this sort of mundane, gritty, everyday nihilistic harshness and the unique, spiritual, ethereal, but almost always detached experience, perhaps what people call their encounters with whatever god. Mainly how they’re inseparable, and the strange ways they cause the other. That might be a bad way to put it. I get off to the feelings you get when, for example, you’re in a city and stop to fully register that this is what’s happening.

But regardless of whatever my focus is (I briefly get distracted by a paper bag blowing in the wind) the place that focus always comes from is that I'm a closeted trans woman, a depersonalized husk who's just ambiently suicidal all the time, just tryna escape my shitty family.

The album I’ve been listening to most frequently this month is Perverts by Ethel Cain. I love taking long walks at night, and it’s my favorite album to do that to if I feel like music. I like how it moves between many different types of people-put-their-souls-in-the-YT-comments slow quiet indie music, and most of all how it ends off on such a comforting song after all the rest.

Hello everypony!

I am ConfuSomu (she/they), i like to meet people and make new friends!
I am interested by a lot of things, in no order: nature, computers, electronics, music, languages, video games, a bit of anime, reading books. I like all kinds of music: classical, EDM, vocaloid, video game music, tracker music (which i'd say is mostly electronic music?). I also play the piano! In terms of electronics, I really like small computers and embedded devices, and older computing things. I also speak French, a bit of Polish and some toki pona!

Like some other posters in this thread, i also see this place as a sort of fresh start, as a new place on the internet, to break habits of old.

I have known about this place since last year, but unfortunately was too scared to post anything. I shouldn't set myself impossibly high expectations, and should just post! :oops:
Though, in the meantime, i've been hanging around on the IRC as confusomu.

My website is right here if you fancy a visit!

deleted

Howdy all : }

I'm Alef [23/[ ? ]/Any/The Set of The Hit HBO Dark Comedy "The Sopranos"]

I found this site through a friend, trying to get into forums and the non-social media internet at large these days. I'm a (hopeful) [computational] linguist and math dweeb during the day, but I've been making electronic music and writing songs as a hobby since middle school. The main things which interest me are live-coding visuals and audio (TidalCycles, GLSL, Max/MSP, etc.), FM and physical modelling synthesis, and musical uses of machine learning that *aren't* letting ChatGPT make songs for you. Outside of music, I enjoy going out dancing, taking care of blue feigning death beetles, my fiancée's writing, thrifting, gnostic and mystic literature, and learning languages (currently Japanese and Neapolitan).

I'm excited to start posting here ( :D ), everyone seems really cool and I hugely value having a space online which fosters the creative self. As /everything/ gets more tumultuous, I feel like this place can be a little island of calm at a time of chaos.

Nice to meet you! :mrgreen:

im 14 years old and i use black magic as my primary offensive skill but im also good with swords and other bladed weapons as well as close quarters combat i work part time at a maid cafe and im currently an apprentice in alchemy

hi, i'm sevan, in my mid 20s. i'm daimon@convo.casa on the fediverse.

i love reading (here's my bookshelf, love ottessa moshfegh), philosophy (currently into deleuze and guattari), learning to make narrative video games and all the skills that are needed for it (drawing, music, pixel art, geometry, storytelling, shaders, etc), and i have some programming skills (which i do for a living). for a long time i've had a feeling of lost wandering through life, but recently trying to embrace structured disciplline for making art. i'm transfemme, but at the same time i have ambivalent feelings towards identity labels.